It is known that starch in the presence of water may be heated under pressure to form a suitable melt for the production of shaped articles. Such starch-based shaped articles may exhibit the disadvantages of relatively poor physical properties under high relative humidity and a relatively high tendency to embrittle under relatively low humidity conditions.
Attempts to overcome these problems by the replacement of the above mentioned starch by starch esters having a low degree of substitution and plasticized by water or glycerol improved the melting behaviour of the material, but the performance at low and high relative humidities remained substantially unchanged.
It is the object of the present invention to overcome, at least in part, the above mentioned disadvantages.